Great battles

[Waldrons11]

After another dominant display from Sebastien in Portugal, it got me thinking, I can't remember the last time a battle for the rally win went right down to the last stage. Like the Burns and Kankunen battles in Finland and Arg in 1999.

I can think of a few battles for lower places -

2003 Petter beats Burns to 2nd by 1.2 seconds in Finland
2005 Hirvonen takes 3rd by 1.2 seconds in Spain over Pons
2006 The Carlsson/Galli battle in Sweden for 3rd

Any ideas? There must have been some awesome fights over the years, but after the Loeb/Gronholm domination of recent times I'm struggling to remember!!

[Erki]

Grönholm vs Loeb - Germany 2003 pops to my mind first.

[Vilkavainen]

A great battle took place in 1989 RAC Rally when the veteran driver and forum member, Pentti Airikkala won the event, in front of the debutant Carlos Sáinz. They were close but as Carlos said when the event finished, they tried everything to beat the finn but it was impossible.

Let´s see if Pentti can tell us something else of that battle. :up:

[Peugeot206WRC]

Grönholm vs Loeb - Germany 2003 pops to my mind first.

Or the fight between Panizzi and Martin in Spain 2003, until last stage Loeb was leadning and Panizzi and Martin 2nd and 3rd.
On last stage Panizzi passed Loeb and Martin was only 0.6sec behind Loeb and 2nd place :D

[White Sauron]

Japan 2006 Gronholm versus Loeb... Very close too. the closest result since that Germany 2003 between them.

[Corny]

Portugal 2001!!

[Priorat]

Catalunya 2000: Colin McRae (Ford), Richard Burns (Subaru) + 6", Carlos Sainz (Ford) +11" before the long last stage.
In 2000 without reverse order and without splits these were not big differences.
Colin won.

[Lalo]

Australia 2003: Solberg vs. Loeb. Their positions weren't defined on the very last stage, but anyway, it was a very close fight. Same with Markko Martin and Petter Solberg in Wales 2002. The Norwegian won both events.

[FrankenSchwinn]

Or the fight between Panizzi and Martin in Spain 2003, until last stage Loeb was leadning and Panizzi and Martin 2nd and 3rd.
On last stage Panizzi passed Loeb and Martin was only 0.6sec behind Loeb and 2nd place :D

um um um um, tasty! i loved that one......


i also did not mind the hirvo/atko thinggy in MC this year.

[Lalo]

Tour de Corse 2004 is one of my favorites. Märtin vs. Duval. They swapped their positions on every stage. Finally, Francoises engine made the "stop" call and Markko won. :D

Arrrg! Where are those fights nowadays?? I'm not kinda a Loeb fan because with him, those fights are not happening anymore. Maybe one for Argentina? jaja

[duff]

Corsica and Portugal in 1997 Between Mcrae and Sainz are two of the best battles in my opinion (McRae won both). Portugal was 2.3 seconds difference at the finish if I remember correctly.

Hirvonen and Atkinson at MC this year couldnt have been much closer!

[A.F.F.]

Portugal 2000. I never liked Richard Burns but I have to give him credit for winning this huge battle against Marcus Grönholm. Both men were really taking risks until Marcus had to give up.

[teufel]

Portugal 2000. I never liked Richard Burns but I have to give him credit for winning this huge battle against Marcus Grönholm. Both men were really taking risks until Marcus had to give up.

It's also one of my favs, but I'm a fan of Richard. Finland 99 was also a good fight with KKK :)

[Corny]

San Remo 99 wasn't too bad too..

[BDunnell]

The fight between Hannu Mikkola, in the old Quattro A2, and Ari Vatanen in the Peugeot 205 T16 for the win on the 1984 RAC Rally was incredible. Mikkola shouldn't have been anywhere near the Peugeot, and wasn't after he went off on the first stage at Knowsley Safari Park and dropped to 33rd, but he clawed his way back. Vatanen had several incidents along the way, including a roll, but Mikkola also got onto his pace and the pair swapped positions several times towards the end of the rally. At the finish, Vatanen was only 41 seconds ahead. I believe it was the closest ever RAC winning margin at that time. A classic.

[cosmicpanda]

I'm not kinda a Loeb fan because with him, those fights are not happening anymore.

Perhaps it's just everyone not keeping up with him?

[Waldrons11]

[quote="duff"]Corsica and Portugal in 1997 Between Mcrae and Sainz are two of the best battles in my opinion (McRae won both). Portugal was 2.3 seconds difference at the finish if I remember correctly.

Just checked - Corsica was even better, just 0.8s between them at the finish!

[Corny]

Malcolm Wilson's words about McRae: 'I would always put my money on him if it comes down to the last stage'

[jiipee64]

>Corny wrote
>>San Remo 99 wasn't too bad too..

yup...

[Harde]

Portugal 2007... Aava and Andersson for JRC victory :p

[T60]

Colin versus Carlos 1995 RAC Rally.
I don't think the end result was too close but, the comeback that followed an off for Colin was legendary and it had me gripped (it was even on TV back then). What seemed impossible slowly looked like being an outside chance and then the win and the championhip came.
I will always remember Tony Mason stuffing his mic into Colin's face, right when he least needed it and asking something like "can you fix the car Colin?" (at this point Colin had a fence post wedged under the bottom arm of his impreza) but he still calmly replied "no problem Tony".
Rallying was just a bit more special then.

[Tomi]

Mikkola vs Blomqvist in 1000 lakes 1982, was one of the best, also Mäkinen vs Rovanperä a few years back in Sweden was good, Märtin vs Grönholm few years back was very good also until the bearring problem in the Peugeot.

[Norwegian Blue]

Was it 2004, a very close Rally GB finish between Loeb and Solberg, about 5 seconds?

[duff]

Just checked - Corsica was even better, just 0.8s between them at the finish!

And Colin took it all on the last stage in the wet! 13seconds I think...

[Erki]

http://www.rallybase.nl/index.php?type=result&rallyid=74

It was 8 seconds, no .8 of a second. Before 1998, the accuracy of timekeeping was 1 second.

[Corny]

Australia 2000; one of the weirdest rallies ever

[A.F.F.]

Before the rules changed conserning the starting order for day 2 and 3, Rally Australia was near to a farce very often.

[Corny]

Sure, but at least that gave some interesting moments :D

[Waldrons11]

http://www.rallybase.nl/index.php?type=result&rallyid=74

It was 8 seconds, no .8 of a second. Before 1998, the accuracy of timekeeping was 1 second.

Ah yes, very good point! Seems strange now that they used to time stages to the nearest second. Actually, I believe 'back in the day' they used to time rallies like safari to the nearest minute!!

[kraut]

Portugal 1978:

Looking back for a few years more. After a long rally over the gravel stages of Portugal on the last day the classic tarmac stages of Sintra, Peninha and Lagua Azol (to be driven three times) had been on the programme.

Markku Alen on the Fiat 131 Abarth and Hannu Mikkola on the Ford Escort were only a second apart and it was a very hard fight. All possible actions had been taken. Sparewheel and tools had already been taken out of the cars. Fiat's teamchef Daniele Audetto, who was well known for dirty tricks intended to place Walter Röhrl's car, which already was out of the rally, clearly visible on a sideroad of the stage together with two persons in overalls and helmets. With this trick Mikkola should think, that Alen's car would be standing in the stage, which would effect Mikkola to slow down after noticing that fact.

But Röhrl still had the keys of the car and refused to cooperate doing those dirty tricks. In the end Mikkola had a puncture and Alen was winning anyway.

[BDunnell]

I've mentioned this one several times on here, but it's worth doing so again. The battle between Markku Alen's Lancia Delta HF Turbo and Jean Ragnotti's Renault 11 Turbo on the 1987 Portuguese Rally was sensational. Early on, the pair were tied for the lead; then Alen got ahead, but Ragnotti, in a car giving away about 115bhp to the Delta and with only two-wheel drive, clawed it back and re-took the lead for a time, in spite of very changeable conditions.

In the end, Alen won by almost three minutes, but Ragnotti's performance remains, in my opinion, one of the best drives in WRC history.

(By the way, I have to say that the Scottish Rally of 1987, while off this topic because it wasn't a WRC event, was even better. In the wet conditions, Jimmy McRae in the two-wheel drive Sierra Cosworth shouldn't really have been much of a challenger in the forests, but he took the lead early on from David Llewellin's Audi Coupe Quattro, and held it until the final night. Then, in darkness, he hit some logs and bent a wishbone. On the next stage, he had to bump-start the car, and Llewellin got ahead with only two more stages remaining. McRae was fastest on both, but couldn't quite do enough, and was second for the umpteenth time on his home event by just 10 seconds. Thankfully, he finally managed to win in Scotland for the first and only time the following season.)

[duff]

Before the rules changed conserning the starting order for day 2 and 3, Rally Australia was near to a farce very often.

yes, and not exciting to watch in person. The first two days no one was pushing at all, they were just watching others times to see how slow to go to get a better start position the next day.

[cut the b.s.]

[quote="BDunnell"]I've mentioned this one several times on here, but it's worth doing so again. The battle between Markku Alen's Lancia Delta HF Turbo and Jean Ragnotti's Renault 11 Turbo on the 1987 Portuguese Rally was sensational. Early on, the pair were tied for the lead; then Alen got ahead, but Ragnotti, in a car giving away about 115bhp to the Delta and with only two-wheel drive, clawed it back and re-took the lead for a time, in spite of very changeable conditions.

In the end, Alen won by almost three minutes, but Ragnotti's performance remains, in my opinion, one of the best drives in WRC history.

QUOTE]

Often think back to this rally, 1 of the all time classic events I think, even though as you mention it didnt finish so close, Ragnottis drive on that event was incredible(I think the Lancias were hindered early on by a batch of wrong shocks though)

[BDunnell]

Often think back to this rally, 1 of the all time classic events I think, even though as you mention it didnt finish so close, Ragnottis drive on that event was incredible(I think the Lancias were hindered early on by a batch of wrong shocks though)

They were indeed. Kankkunen was troubled by his shock absorbers throughout, but even so, it was really a scrap between Alen and Ragnotti right from the start. Unforgettable.

That was actually a really interesting year of WRC, in spite of the Group A cars being a bit of a comedown for some people after Group B. The battle on the 1000 Lakes between the Fords of Vatanen and Blomqvist, for instance, was very entertaining.